Best Montessori Toys for Babies 0-12 Months, by Stage

Quick answer: For a newborn, start with a high-contrast board book, a floor mirror and a simple wooden play gym. From 3 to 6 months add things to grasp, like the Manhattan Toy Winkel and Skwish rattles. From 6 months, add the Sassy Stacks of Circles and Fat Brain Tobbles Neo, then an object permanence box after 8 months.

A baby's first year doesn't need much stuff. The Montessori approach to infants is mostly about the room: a firm mat on the floor, a mirror at the baby's level, and a few objects the baby can reach, mouth, drop and find again. The toys below are the ones that fit that setup best at each stage. We research manufacturer listings, specs, age and safety labels, and buyer reviews. We don't test products hands-on. We checked the age label on every listing below.

The object permanence box is a classic Montessori infant material. The rest are Montessori-friendly.

The 11 picks at a glance

What a baby is working on in the first year

Babies change fast, and the CDC's milestone checklists are a useful way to see what a toy could be useful for at each point. By 2 months, the CDC lists that most babies look at a toy for several seconds and watch you as you move. By 4 months most babies hold a toy when you put it in their hand and swing an arm at toys. By 6 months most put things in their mouth to explore them and reach to grab a toy they want. By 9 months most look for objects when they drop out of sight and bang two things together. By the first birthday most put something in a container, like a block in a cup.

That sequence gives a sensible buying order: something to look at, then something to swat, then something to hold and mouth, then something to bang, drop and find. A toy that matches the current step gets used. A toy two steps ahead sits in the basket. If your baby isn't doing something on these lists yet, that is a question for your pediatrician, not a reason to buy a toy.

Safety first: sleep, small parts and labels

Keep toys out of the crib. The American Academy of Pediatrics says to use a fitted sheet only, and lists toys among the soft objects and loose items that raise the risk of entrapment, suffocation or strangulation. The NIH Safe to Sleep campaign says the same: remove everything from the baby's sleep area except a fitted sheet. Every toy on this page is for awake, supervised time on the floor.

Read the label, not the marketing. Use the age on the box, not the age in a product title or a blog post. Four toys that often appear on baby lists came off ours for that reason. The Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Cube is labeled for ages 2 and up. The Hape Pound & Tap Bench and Elite Montessori Coin Box are labeled from 12 months. Hape's Beaded Raindrops listing gives 0–1 year in one field and 12+ months in another, so we treat it as a 12-months-and-up toy and left it off this page. The pound bench and coin box are on our 1-year-old list; the shape sorting cube is on our 2-year-old list.

Check small parts yourself. Follow the small-parts warning on every package, and remember that older siblings' toys with small pieces end up on the floor. Check hanging toys on a play gym for loose strings, and inspect wooden toys for cracks and splinters every few weeks, because mouthing is constant from about 4 months. Our toy safety guide covers what to look for.

0-3 months: things to look at

A newborn's work is looking. They can't reach yet, so the toys are things you place in their view: a high-contrast picture, a mirror beside the mat, a mobile above it. Montessori families often use the Munari mobile first, a black-and-white geometric mobile. The authentic sets come mostly from small workshops rather than Amazon, so we haven't linked one. Hang any mobile out of reach over the floor mat, never over the crib.

Hello, Baby Animals (high-contrast board book)

Black-and-white illustrations of animals, one per spread, on thick board pages. Stand it open beside your baby during tummy time or hold it up during a feed. It is also a fair answer to "Montessori infant books": realistic subjects, no cartoon clutter. The drawback is that a baby outgrows looking at it within a few months, though it still works as a read-aloud.

Sassy Tummy Time Floor Mirror

A folding mirror that stands on the floor next to a baby on their tummy. Babies this age watch faces, and a mirror puts one at their level while they practice lifting their head. It's labeled 0+ months, has a soft frame and an easel back, and comes with a spinning ball and a clicking bee on the frame. Some parents find the stand flimsy, and a baby who can roll will eventually knock it over, which is harmless but means it moves around the mat.

Mallify Wooden Baby Gym

A foldable pine A-frame with six removable hanging rings and toys. In the first weeks it is something to look at. By 3 to 4 months, when babies start swinging at toys, it becomes something to hit. Swap the hanging toys every week or two instead of hanging all six at once. The listing doesn't print an age range, and the hanging cords need checking: tie them short enough that nothing can loop around a neck, and take the gym away once your baby can pull up on it.

3-6 months: things to grasp and mouth

Around 3 or 4 months the hands come online. Babies open and close them, bring them to their mouth, and close a fist on whatever you offer. Good toys for this stage are light, easy to grip from any angle and safe to chew. Offer them at the side so your baby has to turn and reach.

Manhattan Toy Winkel

A tangle of soft, looping BPA-free tubes around a small rattle cube, about 5 by 4 inches. Whichever way a baby grabs it, there's a loop to hold, so it's often the first toy a 3-month-old can pick up and keep hold of. The tubes are thin enough to chew. It's rated for newborns and up and has more than 40,000 Amazon reviews. It's plastic rather than wood, so it's Montessori-friendly in use rather than in material.

Manhattan Toy Skwish

Light wooden dowels and beads held together with elastic ties, so the whole thing squashes flat and springs back, and the beads slide and rattle. Babies grab it, shake it, push it and chew the dowels. Manhattan Toy rates it for newborns and up, but it suits the older end of this stage, when a baby starts passing things between hands. The elastic is the weak point: check it regularly and retire the toy if a cord frays.

Itzy Ritzy Linking Rings

Eight plastic rings (the listing's material field says plastic) that clip into each other. Use one or two as teethers, hook a ring onto the play gym, or link a short chain to a stroller. They're labeled 0+ months. They're not a toy a baby can "do" much with on their own, so think of them as a teether and a helper for other toys. Keep chains short, for the same strangulation reason as the play gym.

6-9 months: sitting, banging and stacking

Once a baby sits with support, both hands are free. This is the age of banging two things together, mouthing everything, and dropping things to see where they go. A Pikler triangle comes later: once a baby pulls up and cruises, usually near the first birthday, it can make sense, and most are labeled from 10 to 12 months or later.

Sassy Stacks of Circles

Nine plastic rings in different textures and colors. A 6-month-old won't stack them on a post; they'll grab, chew and bang them, and that's fine. The rings fit inside each other, so later in the year they make a nesting toy. It's labeled 6 to 24 months and has more than 65,000 Amazon reviews. It's plastic and has no post, so it won't satisfy the classic Montessori ring-on-a-dowel stacker. Save that for later and follow its label: the wooden Rainbow Stacker on our 1-year-old list is labeled from 18 months.

Fat Brain Tobbles Neo

Weighted, rounded pieces that nest inside each other, stack into a tower and wobble and spin without falling over. A sitting baby can knock them, spin them and pull them apart well before they can build anything. Fat Brain labels it 6 months and up, and the pieces are ABS plastic made without BPA, lead or phthalates. Because they are weighted, a thrown piece can hurt a sibling.

Adena Montessori Spinning Drum

A drum on a stand with six fabric panels in different colors, one of them a mirror, that spins and rattles when a baby swats it. Adena suggests it for tummy time before sitting, and it invites the reaching-and-swiping movement of this stage. A baby can make it go without help. The listing title says 6 to 12 months and the recommended age reads 6 months and up. It's a one-trick toy, so it's a good candidate for rotation rather than a permanent shelf spot.

9-12 months: dropping, finding and putting in

By 9 months the CDC lists looking for a dropped toy as a typical milestone, and by 12 months putting an object into a container. Toys for this stage are about where things go. The object permanence box is the classic Montessori material for it.

Elite Montessori Object Permanence Box

A wooden box with a hole in the lid and a tray at the front. The baby drops a ball through the hole, it disappears, then rolls out into the tray. Repeating that is the whole activity, and it can support practice of the idea that things still exist when out of sight. It's labeled 8 months and up. Defer to that label, put the ball away with the box after play, and supervise, since the ball spends the whole session going in and out of a baby's hands. If you want more options, read our Adena object permanence box review.

Indestructibles: Hello, Farm!

A 12-page picture book with few words, printed on a rip-proof, waterproof material that can be chewed and washed. Its thin, chew-proof pages are made for babies to grab and mouth. It's thin and light, which suits a baby's basket on a low shelf. The drawback is the floppy pages, which won't stand open on their own the way a board book does.

How to set up and rotate baby toys

A baby doesn't need twelve toys out at once. Three to five is a common starting point, the same scale we use across this site. Put them on a low Montessori shelf or in a shallow basket beside the play mat, at a height your baby can reach from the floor once they can sit.

• 0-3 months: a mirror on one side of the mat, one high-contrast book or card set on the other, and a play gym or mobile overhead. Change the picture every few days.
• 3-6 months: two or three graspable toys within reach. Swap one out every week or two, keeping the favorite.
• 6-12 months: three to five toys on the shelf, each with all its parts. Keep the rest in a closet and rotate every week or two, sooner if a toy is being ignored.

A toy that bores your baby may come back into favour a month later, because the baby has changed. Our toy rotation guide explains how to run a rotation without it becoming a chore.

What to skip

Montessori guidance for babies steers away from toys that light up, sing or move by themselves. The concern is simple: when the toy does the action, the baby watches instead of doing. Bouncers and seats that hold a baby upright before they can sit also cut into floor time. You also don't need a large set of "developmental" toys. Kitchen objects such as a wooden spoon, a metal bowl and a short silk scarf to pull out of a tissue box (put away after supervised play) work as well as anything sold for it, so long as nothing is small enough to swallow. If you're keeping costs down, our budget Montessori guide has more cheap picks.

Where to go next

Approaching the first birthday? Our best Montessori toys for 1-year-olds picks up where this list stops, and Montessori gifts for 1-year-olds is the shortlist for a birthday. For every age in one place, start with our best Montessori toys guide.

FAQ

What are the must-have Montessori toys for babies?

A high-contrast book or card set, a floor mirror, a rattle a baby can grip, a set of rings to mouth and stack, and an object permanence box by about 8 months. Add a play gym if you have floor space. Those five or six items cover the main stages of the first year.

What are good toys for newborns?

Things to look at rather than hold. Newborns can't reach yet, so high-contrast black-and-white pictures, a mirror beside the play mat and a simple mobile out of reach over the mat are the most useful. Keep everything out of the crib, per AAP safe-sleep guidance.

Are Montessori toys good for babies?

They can be, mainly because they're simple. A Montessori-friendly baby toy does one thing, responds to what the baby does and is made from a material that is pleasant to hold and mouth. That suits a stage where babies learn by grabbing, mouthing and dropping. No toy speeds up development, though, and floor time with a parent nearby matters more than the brand.

Should my 4-month-old be playing with toys?

Yes, briefly and on the floor. By 4 months, the CDC lists holding a toy put in the hand and swinging at toys as typical. Offer one light toy at a time during awake tummy time or back time, and take it away when the baby is tired or falls asleep.

What are the best Montessori toys for 6-12 months?

The Sassy Stacks of Circles, Fat Brain Tobbles Neo and Adena Spinning Drum are labeled from 6 months and suit 6 to 9 months, when babies sit and bang. From 8 months, add the Elite Montessori Object Permanence Box. Push toys, coin boxes and shape sorters are usually labeled from 12 months or later, so check the box before buying them early.

What age should you start Montessori toys?

From birth, if by toys you mean things to look at. A newborn can use a high-contrast picture and a mirror in the first weeks. Graspable toys follow around 3 to 4 months, when babies begin closing their hands around objects.

Can babies have toys in the crib?

No. The AAP and the NIH Safe to Sleep campaign both say a baby's sleep space should contain only a fitted sheet. Toys, including soft toys, belong in the play space during awake, supervised time.